Abstract

A conjugate molecule was synthesized by linking the DNA-intercalative antitumor drug 4′-(9-acridinylamino)methanesulfon-m-anisidide (mAMSA) via a 4-carboxamide side chain to a dipyrrolecarboxamide moiety structurally related to the minor groove-binding antibiotic netropsin. The molecule (netropsin/mAMSA) behaves as a threading intercalator. Its netropsin-like tail becomes located in the minor groove of the double helix and serves to drive the hybrid molecule preferentially to AT-rich sites on various DNA fragments as revealed by DNase I footprinting. The hybrid retains the susceptibility to copper-dependent oxidation characteristic of the parent mAMSA moiety as well as its ability to generate oxygen radicals, which can mediate DNA damage, mainly at cytidine and guanosine nucleotides. It also retains the property of stimulating the formation of cleavable complexes with DNA in the presence of topoisomerase II, but its netropsin-like moiety confers little or no influence on the reaction with topoisomerase I. Although netropsin/mAMSA is less potent than mAMSA at producing cleavable complexes with topoisomerase II, it promotes the appearance of cleavage sites at much the same nucleotide sequences as does the parent compound. The dipyrrolecarboxamide tail is not silent, however, since it modifies the concentration-dependence of cleavable complex formation.